Introducing Chasqui!

Three weeks ago, Kevin invited us over for Sunday dinner. This is a regular occurrence and we didn't think much of it.

We arrived at Kevin's and he had this big gate up, blocking the living room. We thought this was a little strange. Steve looked around and then looked at me and said, "Oh my goodness, my dad got a dog!". We went running to the backyard, and sure enough! There was the cutest little Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy there to greet us!

Kevin had just gotten back from picking him up at the airport in Atlanta. Steve and I were obsessed right from the start! Kevin named him Chasqui, after a previous ridgeback he had many years ago.

He is the cutest little pup and has made our minds up that we will be getting a puppy as soon as we move!

 Kevin has to teach in Knoxville most Saturdays, so we get the honor of babysitting at least one day a week. He is so much fun to have around!

Kevin asked me to take pictures of him every week so he can track how much he grows. It's amazing how big he has gotten in only three weeks!

Isn't he so handsome??

We just love Chasqui! He is going to be hard to leave when we move!

We're Moving!

We found out on February 22nd where we are moving for rotations.

WE ARE MOVING TO MEMPHIS!!!

This was both of our first picks and we could not be more thrilled! Steve got Memphis, Core 1 which was his top pick.

We will be moving in the middle of May. It can't come soon enough!

The Super Bowl

We went to Rick and Holly's for the Super Bowl this year. Holly made quite the spread and I ate WAY too much.

There was a problem getting the game to come in clearly, so Rick had to sit and hold the antenna. I told him this would be a humbling memory for twenty years from now when he is a millionaire.

 Every year I try to get into football, but every year I fail. I mostly played on my i pod and watched the commercials. Katie and Brady joined in on the technology fun!

It was fun to hang out with Rick, Holly, and the kids. This was our last Super Bowl that we will have with family for who knows how long! Hopefully we will make new friends when we move since we won't have any family around.

Nashville and Memphis

Back in January, we decided to go and check out Memphis and Crossville (two potential rotation sites). We went over Martin Luther King Day. It was nice to get out of town for the three day weekend! We decided to break the trip up and spend Friday night in Nashville, Saturday night in Memphis, and Sunday night again in Nashville.

We left late afternoon on Friday and stopped in Crossville on our way to Nashville. We stopped and talked to some of Rick and Holly's friends about the rotation and whether or not they liked Crossville. I wasn't sold on it. Ben (Rick's friend) really sold Steve on the rotation though. I was really hoping that we would fall in love with Memphis and Steve would forget all about Crossville! We got to Nashville late and just went to sleep.

The next morning we decided to go see the Ryman Auditorium downtown. The Ryman Auditorium is a famous music venue. It is known for having the second best acoustics in the Nation. The first is the Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square. :) I think it would have been a lot more interesting if I was a big music buff, but it was still cool to look at the building. It is a beautiful auditorium.

 Steve downtown!

 Us in the Ryman.

The Ryman. I loved the stained glass windows!

 After our tour, we headed down to Memphis! Our first stop was in Germantown, a city just outside of Memphis and where we would most likely live if we move there. 

Well, my wish came true. We LOVED Germantown!! It is a beautiful, well kept city and it has EVERYTHING! It has Costco, Target, and a Mall! And tons of great places to eat. It is everything I could hope for. And Steve loved it too! We went to one of the hospitals that he would do rotations at and he was very impressed.

After Germantown, we went to visit another hospital that Steve would work at in Memphis. This hospital wasn't as nice and the neighborhood was a little run down. BUT we loved Germantown so much that we didn't let it dampen our mood.

After we explored, we went to get some Memphis BBQ! We found a little place by our hotel and it was delicious.

After dinner we went to historic Beale Street! It was a pretty interesting place. They have the street blocked off so you can just walk around. They sale liquor and beer to go! It was quite the party place. Sadly, we were both stuffed from dinner and exhausted. So we just walked down the street and then went back to the hotel. We are getting so old and boring!!

Steve on Beale

 The next day we drove around and looked at apartments in Germantown and Cordova (which is right next to Germantown). We just fell in love with these two cities. By the time we left, we had decided that Memphis would be Steve's top pick for his rotation site!

We got to Nashville just as the sun set, but decided to go see the Parthenon. It is a replica of the Parthenon in Greece. It was so beautiful and just made me want to go to Greece! Apparently there is a really cool museum inside. I'm sad we got there so late. Next time!

 We had a great little weekend getaway and we are now very excited to see where we end up for rotations!